BATS Global Markets, a global stock market exchange based in the US, plans to appeal the March 11 decision of the Securities Exchange Commission to turn down the approval of the Winklevoss twins’ Bitcoin ETF COIN.

In June, the Winklevoss twins switched the exchange listing of its Bitcoin ETF from the Nasdaq to BATS Global Markets, selecting BATS to introduce the first Bitcoin ETF to the public.

Since then, officials and executives of BATS have been heavily involved in both the development and approval process of the COIN ETF.

If the COIN ETF had been approved by the SEC earlier this month, it would have meant that the BATS exchange would have been authorized to facilitate the trading of Bitcoin ETF and introduce the digital currency to a new market composed of institutional investors, hedge funds and investment firms.

Essentially, the vision of the Winklevoss twins was to release an instrument for use with Bitcoin that would provide higher liquidity for high-profile investors and buyers.

Bitcoin ETF denial appeal

Earlier this month, Cointelegraph reported that the SEC officially denied the approval of the COIN ETF. The market responded immediately as Bitcoin price plunged from $1,350 to $980 within minutes.

The Bitcoin community and industry anxiously awaited the highly anticipated announcement from the SEC, which took over four years of discussion, evaluation and analysis.

Ultimately, the SEC denied the approval of the COIN ETF due to regulatory issues surrounding Bitcoin. SEC officials stated that the commission can’t protect investors trading Bitcoin because it is decentralized in nature.

The market recovered quickly after the denial of the ETF because the community realized that a Bitcoin ETF wasn’t necessary, to begin with. As Bitcoin and security expert Andreas Antonopoulos wrote:

“The ETF was denied because Bitcoin can't be regulated, can't be surveilled. Feature, not bug.”

More importantly, Antonopoulos emphasized that Bitcoin was designed specifically to provide an alternative financial ecosystem that exists outside of the realm of the regulated finance industry.

Therefore, the idea of creating an instrument such as an ETF that would encourage Bitcoin users to rely on the market that the digital currency aims to defeat isn’t practical and doesn’t supplement the vision of Bitcoin.

In that sense, it is unlikely that the SEC will overturn their decision to deny the approval of the COIN ETF. Bitcoin still operates on the same structure built on a peer to peer protocol. While regulatory frameworks and policies can control Bitcoin markets to some extent, it isn’t possible for lawmakers to regulate Bitcoin itself.

More importantly, the SEC cited the lack of regulations in overseas markets and the ambiguity in hard fork contingency. The two factors still exist and will be an issue for the SEC.